During the midst of the global pandemic in 2020, many companies had to change the way that they do business… fast. Almost overnight, the world relied on giants like Zoom, Facebook, Amazon, and more to keep them connect, keep their businesses functional, and keep their shelves stocked with toilet paper when they were unable to leave their homes. In order to pivot, innovate quickly, and meet the sudden and overwhelming demand, they staffed up.

Years later, with the worst fears of the pandemic behind us, layoffs across these industries that were forced to scale quickly in order to meet public demand have left many wondering: Is this a sign of an economic downturn, or a return to pre-pandemic business as usual? In an internal study conducted by iMAD Research, we surveyed this hard-to-reach audience to see what those in the IT departments, HR functions, and the C-Suite of large businesses throughout the United States thought about these workforce reductions. The results left us feeling encouraged, not just for our global economy, but for those who were currently facing unemployment:

• 80% of those surveyed said that their company had experienced layoffs in the past 12 months*
• Nearly 7 in 10 people affected were in tech/software development functions
• 60% expected another round of layoffs in the next 12 months
• 3 out of 4 people surveyed said they expect to rehire in the next 12 months, and 75% of those new hires will be within the tech/software development space

*Results shown are from a survey of U.S.-based employees currently in a management level or higher in the IT, HR or Executive departments of companies 100+ employees.

The results of this study seem to confirm what we have all been hoping for, that the pandemic is indeed behind us. But a large-scale, global event like the Covid-19 pandemic is guaranteed to have lasting effects and we are experiencing those effects in the way we currently do business. The wide-spread acceptance of remote-work and virtual meetings has opened doors for many organizations to diversify their workforce by hiring outside of their regional area, and increase their bottom line by conducting some meetings virtually that may have involved expensive travel in the past.

While workforce reductions have put a strain on family budgets across the globe, we can remain confident that those whose hard work helped pull us all through trying times are likely to find a new niche in the near future as our global economy stabilizes in a post-pandemic world.

If you would like to learn more about iMAD Research, our proprietary panel of respondents, or our ability to conduct surveys amongst hard-to-reach audiences, contact us at [email protected].